KegLand Questions and Answers

[onemorecell]

The oxygen cylinders are really designed to be as low cost as possible as they are a disposable product. The additional valve on the cylinder would increase the cylinder cost by about 30%. So we would have to carefully evaluate if this was what guys like yourself want. From our experience the gas already shuts off quite fast if you unscrew the regulator quickly.

Any idea of the cost of a better regulator that can be left on without leakage? Would make more sense than an additional valve for a disposable cylinder

 

[PaleRider]

Any idea of the cost of a better regulator that can be left on without leakage? Would make more sense than an additional valve for a disposable cylinder

Agreed, I'd prefer to pay more than have to separate after every brew day.

@Kegland....... I picked up the oxygen kit last week, if I'd known this was the case I wouldn't have.
I brewed yesterday, regulator still on today, will see how it performs.

 

[onemorecell]

Agreed, I'd prefer to pay more than have to separate after every brew day.

@Kegland....... I picked up the oxygen kit last week, if I'd known this was the case I wouldn't have.
I brewed yesterday, regulator still on today, will see how it performs.

yeah love to hear how it goes in reality. might not be that bad...

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Any idea of the cost of a better regulator that can be left on without leakage? Would make more sense than an additional valve for a disposable cylinder

It's not something that we have found to be an issue ourselves so we are not sure where you are getting the leak from. We have had our own regulators attached to various disposable cylinders here without any issues. With that said if you are able to bring the unit back into us we would be able to get a better idea of what your issue is. It could just be the seal that is on the underside of the regulator. Possibly the gauge is damaged and leaking. It's really hard to say without looking at it.

When comparing the regulators that we sell for the disposable cylinders we have found ours to be the best quality ones that we have found already. We have compared our regulators for these disposable cylinders to the Tesuco ones, others from BOC and Bunnings and we have found to that ours are at least as good as these others.

 

[onemorecell]

It's not something that we have found to be an issue ourselves so we are not sure where you are getting the leak from. We have had our own regulators attached to various disposable cylinders here without any issues. With that said if you are able to bring the unit back into us we would be able to get a better idea of what your issue is. It could just be the seal that is on the underside of the regulator. Possibly the gauge is damaged and leaking. It's really hard to say without looking at it.

When comparing the regulators that we sell for the disposable cylinders we have found ours to be the best quality ones that we have found already. We have compared our regulators for these disposable cylinders to the Tesuco ones, others from BOC and Bunnings and we have found to that ours are at least as good as these others.

I actually haven't even tried leaving it on yet... will do it next time.
it's not one of yours either. got it from brewman. he ran me through it the first time and said to disconnect after using it, so have just done that always

Just the bottle that's from KL

 

[devoutharpist]

Hey Kegland, currently got my kegerator running with the fan and the tube going up to the taps. Set to 6C (actual temp appears to be 7C, after testing water left in there for 24hrs). I am noticing a lot of condensation on the back of the fridge (internally)? Is there anything i can do to stop this? I'm only opening the fridge once a day to check the CO2 gauge.

 

[Coalminer]

I actually haven't even tried leaving it on yet... will do it next time.
it's not one of yours either. got it from brewman. he ran me through it the first time and said to disconnect after using it, so have just done that always

I have the same as you from Brewman. first bottle lasted 4 brews without disconnecting. second bottle currently still going strong after 28 brews and being disconnected each time (generally aerate 2 ferments at the same time so 14 disconnects)
you lose very little if you're quick, bit like ripping off a bandaid

 

[Nullnvoid]

We do not have any plans to do this at this stage. One thing the wine industry dues is use glass balls ( i think they are just marbles to displace volume inside some larger vessels. So you could just do that as well. Previously we found the 500ml was too small and a lot of customers wanted a large one which is how we came to the 1000ml size. If we get enough request for a smaller one we will re-consider and make a smaller one.

I'm up to my second brew now in the Fermzilla and I think the 1000ml bottle is fine. On both ferments now, I have collected 1000ml of trub and then 1000ml of yeastcake. So far I haven't lost any beer to the collection bottle.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

I'm up to my second brew now in the Fermzilla and I think the 1000ml bottle is fine. On both ferments now, I have collected 1000ml of trub and then 1000ml of yeastcake. So far I haven't lost any beer to the collection bottle.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Yeah I'm crashing now and it's full of yeast. The idea with the glass marbles to fill the space is a good idea if it did start to be a problem of wasted beer.

 

[Nullnvoid]

Yeah I'm crashing now and it's full of yeast. The idea with the glass marbles to fill the space is a good idea if it did start to be a problem of wasted beer.

Yeah for sure, I didn't think of that, but that's a great idea.

I already use marbles to weigh down the hopsock when dry hopping.

 

[ABG]

Yeah for sure, I didn't think of that, but that's a great idea.

I already use marbles to weigh down the hopsock when dry hopping.

It'd be a good idea to use some marbles when adding hops o2 free I reckon. Unless you're brewing a NEIPA of course.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Hey Kegland, currently got my kegerator running with the fan and the tube going up to the taps. Set to 6C (actual temp appears to be 7C, after testing water left in there for 24hrs). I am noticing a lot of condensation on the back of the fridge (internally)? Is there anything i can do to stop this? I'm only opening the fridge once a day to check the CO2 gauge.

It's difficult to prevent condensation. Perhaps worth checking if you are getting any other air exchange in the fridge. For instance if you are using the font fan make sure that the cold air is coming back down into the fridge and you dont have any possible air leaks in the font. If you are blowing cold air out of the fridge the fridge will be working harder but also drawing warm moist air into the fridge and making the condensation worse.

As you would know the fridge itself can't make moisture. It has to come into the fridge via the door or another hole. So reducing air exchange is the main thing. With that said this moisture is not an issue so I would not be concerned about it.

With regards to fridge temp that seems fairly close. You can calibrate the fridge but with only 1C difference between the display and measured temp I would not bother. Please also remember that the set temp is never going to be the average temp. As the logic in the temp controller will turn off the temp at 6C and then the temp will go up by about 1-2C before triggering the compressor to turn back on again. So if you have a set temp of 6C you will have an actual keg temp of between 6-8C. That's just how temp controllers work in fridges like this.

 

[devoutharpist]

...

Thanks for that all, all useful info. I'll check to see if any cool air is coming back down, but judging by what you've said it's probably a "normal" level of condensation.

 

[Timbo]

Kegland, do you guys have a physical store we can shop at or still online and pickup only? If not, any plans to have a shop in the future?

Cheers

 

[theSeekerr]

It'd be a good idea to use some marbles when adding hops o2 free I reckon. Unless you're brewing a NEIPA of course.

I've been giving some thought to this....I don't own a Fermzilla, but I'm trying to figure out a good way to do an O2-free dry hop in my kegmenter and a whole Fermzilla is cheaper than any of the ideas I've had so far.

What bothers me is that even if you purge with CO2 to only have a small amount of O2 in the collection container, when you open the butterfly valve it's going to bubble through the beer to get to the headspace.

Using marbles or similar to reduce the amount of volume in the container should reduce the amount of O2 proportionally, so that would help. So too would filling the container with an O2-free liquid along with the hops. The most obvious choice is the beer itself....with a carbonation cap and a bit of silicone line, it should be possible to do a psuedo-counter-pressure fill of the purged collection container in-place on the Fermzilla without splashing the beer around excessively.

Alternately, you could push in boiled water, but that would require introducing quite a lot of water.
But perhaps that becomes viable if you fill the excess space with marbles.....very little air displaced by very little water should get you a solution where very little O2 is bubbled through the beer when the butterfly valve is opened.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Kegland, do you guys have a physical store we can shop at or still online and pickup only? If not, any plans to have a shop in the future?

Cheers

It's hard to call it a traditional home brew store. Down here at Springvale we have full time staff to provide customer service and assistance with your purchase. But if you want to purchase goods we have computers setup in the waiting area so even when you pickup you still need to go onto one of the computers in our waiting area to place the order through the website. With that said the pickup orders and express orders are prioritised so these normally are picked by the warehouse in less than 1 hr. Also if you let us know you are waiting it will get picked immediately and given to you directly in the waiting area.

We also have a ping pong table in the waiting area so you can play a game while you wait for your order and we also have got a new computer so we have 2 computers that you can place orders on now instead of 1.

We find the current pickup lockers are working quite sell but the main change is we might start picking and packing orders on Sat too. At the moment we only are picking and packing orders Mon-Friday but due to the large volume of orders we might have to start packing orders on the weekend soon too.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I've been giving some thought to this....I don't own a Fermzilla, but I'm trying to figure out a good way to do an O2-free dry hop in my kegmenter and a whole Fermzilla is cheaper than any of the ideas I've had so far.

What bothers me is that even if you purge with CO2 to only have a small amount of O2 in the collection container, when you open the butterfly valve it's going to bubble through the beer to get to the headspace.

Using marbles or similar to reduce the amount of volume in the container should reduce the amount of O2 proportionally, so that would help. So too would filling the container with an O2-free liquid along with the hops. The most obvious choice is the beer itself....with a carbonation cap and a bit of silicone line, it should be possible to do a psuedo-counter-pressure fill of the purged collection container in-place on the Fermzilla without splashing the beer around excessively.

Alternately, you could push in boiled water, but that would require introducing quite a lot of water.
But perhaps that becomes viable if you fill the excess space with marbles.....very little air displaced by very little water should get you a solution where very little O2 is bubbled through the beer when the butterfly valve is opened.

Yes this is a problem that even a lot of commercial breweries face too. The easiest solution is to purge the collection container with the hops in it just with CO2 and a carbonation cap. So if you use this stainless carbonation cap that is one option or we will soon have this plastic carbonation caps available too. The plastic ones will also be sold quite cheaply as a pack of 10 so you can use them a bit like a disposable cap if you wanted. If you pressure the collection container with 2.5bar then release the pressure you should be down to about 6% oxygen. Then if you repeat this process and then release the pressure you should be down to 1% oxygen. Then if you repeat this process a third time then you should get down to 0.1% oxygen. So you can keep repeating this process until you get an acceptable oxygen concentration. So with only three purges at 2.5bar you can get to quite a low concentration and you will only consume about 18L of CO2. So this is fast, economical with regards to CO2 and quite a clean and easy solution.

Yes you could try and displace more air with marbles etc and other stuff but if your goal is just to displace oxygen I would just use this method as it works and it''s quite simple. Perhaps you might want to get a couple inline ball valves like these ones to open and close valves on either side of the collection container.

 

[Timbo]

It's hard to call it a traditional home brew store. Down here at Springvale we have full time staff to provide customer service and assistance with your purchase. But if you want to purchase goods we have computers setup in the waiting area so even when you pickup you still need to go onto one of the computers in our waiting area to place the order through the website. With that said the pickup orders and express orders are prioritised so these normally are picked by the warehouse in less than 1 hr. Also if you let us know you are waiting it will get picked immediately and given to you directly in the waiting area.

We also have a ping pong table in the waiting area so you can play a game while you wait for your order and we also have got a new computer so we have 2 computers that you can place orders on now instead of 1.

We find the current pickup lockers are working quite sell but the main change is we might start picking and packing orders on Sat too. At the moment we only are picking and packing orders Mon-Friday but due to the large volume of orders we might have to start packing orders on the weekend soon too.

Thanks Kegland. Might have to learn how to purchase using a computer as I’m more of an in store customer and I like the option of being able to take a look at an item before I buy.

The better half usually sorts me out for online purchases, but with homebrew gear, the convincing can be a little more difficult! Might have to catchup with technology I think!

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Thanks Kegland. Might have to learn how to purchase using a computer as I’m more of an in store customer and I like the option of being able to take a look at an item before I buy.

The better half usually sorts me out for online purchases, but with homebrew gear, the convincing can be a little more difficult! Might have to catchup with technology I think!

I think once you get the hang of the pickup locker system you will really enjoy it. If you are really struggling with and order and dont know what to buy then just give us a call and we can also talk you through the process.

 

[awfulknauful]

Thanks Kegland. Might have to learn how to purchase using a computer as I’m more of an in store customer and I like the option of being able to take a look at an item before I buy.

The better half usually sorts me out for online purchases, but with homebrew gear, the convincing can be a little more difficult! Might have to catchup with technology I think!

Better brush up on your ping pong too